LAS VEGAS _ UCLA was trying to do something Friday night as impressive as it was unusual: hand Arizona a second consecutive home loss.
Officially, the Bruins were playing the Wildcats in a Pac-12 Conference tournament semifinal on a neutral court inside T-Mobile Arena.
But any doubts about crowd composition were answered when UCLA took the court for warmups, the boos emphatically drowning out the cheers. A few moments later, when the Wildcats appeared, there was a deafening "U of A!" chant that made it sound like they were inside the welcoming confines of the McKale Center.
A fan who held up a sign reading "McKale North X NW" wasn't kidding.
The decibel level remained high for much of the game and the seventh-ranked Wildcats made some noise of their own in defeating the No. 3 Bruins, 86-75.
UCLA was trying to extend a 10-game winning streak and remain in the hunt for a top seeding in the NCAA tournament, given that the Bruins already had three victories over top-five teams to go with only three losses.
Arizona advanced to play top-seeded Oregon in the championship game Saturday. The Ducks held off California, 73-65, in the other semifinal Friday.
UCLA endured some epic struggles with its long-range shooting in the nightcap. Bryce Alford missed his first seven three-pointers, a trend for a team that made only two of its first 17 attempts from beyond the arc.
After Alford missed a corner three-pointer early in the second half, an Arizona fan yelled, "Hey, Bryce, keep shooting! You're doing well!"
The same statement could be said without the facetiousness regarding the Wildcats. When Arizona's Allonzo Trier made a three-pointer over Lonzo Ball to give the Wildcats a 61-48 lead, they had made nine of 17 shots from long range to that point.
Arizona fans commenced what felt like celebratory cheering after Chance Comanche's putback dunk gave the Wildcats a 63-48 lead and UCLA Coach Steve Alford called timeout. There was still 13:13 remaining in the game.
The Bruins had another push left in them, Ball converting a four-point play after being fouled on a three-pointer and Bryce Alford finally making a three-pointer to shave his team's deficit to 66-57.
But Arizona's Lauri Markkanen, who finished with 29 points and six rebounds, scored the next five points and the volume level rose again among all the red-clad fans.
UCLA had manhandled Arizona the last time these teams met almost two weeks ago in Tucson, grabbing 14 offensive rebounds to the Wildcats' four on the way to a 77-72 victory. The Bruins also held Arizona to only 29 points in the second half.
The Wildcats held the edge in toughness in the first half Friday.
Tipoff came at 8:51 p.m., four minutes later than the start of UCLA's quarterfinal victory over USC. The opening minutes also had a similar feel to the way the Bruins had played the previous night, a strong start followed by a sloppy stretch.
A driving layup by Ball gave UCLA a 13-8 lead but was a prelude to a scoring drought of 5:02 that included five missed shots and some slipshod ballhandling. When Ball fumbled the ball out of bounds for a turnover, an Arizona fan yelled, "Hey, Steph Curry wouldn't have done that!"
It was some needling that alluded to Ball's father, LaVar, having said that his son was already better than Curry, the two-time NBA most valuable player from the Golden State Warriors. It was a forgettable first half for Ball, who would commit four turnovers and make only one of three shots.
The Wildcats surged ahead, 27-20, on Markkanen's three-pointer that sent the crowd into hysterics. UCLA pulled even with a 7-0 run that included a floater from Alford for his first points of the game after missing his first two shots. But Alford forced a three-pointer later in the half that only nicked the front of the rim and appeared to be on his way to a third consecutive subpar game.
UCLA's nine turnovers and shaky shooting _ the Bruins made 42.3 percent of their shots in the first half _ were the biggest reasons they went into halftime trailing, 41-35. Ball, Alford and Aaron Holiday had combined to make three of 12 shots to that point.
It would only get worse.
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